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Rob Mulholland's Skytower, Rawyards, Airdrie

A new video of the visually striking Skytower sculpture at Rawyards near Airdrie has surfaced online this week, courtesy of YouTube channel Above Scotland. Created by artist Rob Mulholland in 2013, the 6-metre high sculpture was designed with the help of the local community, with assistance from children at local primary schools Clarkston and St Serf’s.

Rawyards is a location with some incredible views of central Scotland, and the sculpture was designed to represent the battle between a man-made structure and the elements. Constructed from nearly a mile of steel rod, Mulholland had to perform 6,000 separate welds to build the sculpture.

Awarded the prestigious Galvanizing in Architecture award by the Galvanizers Association in 2014, the sculpture has become a familiar sight, silhouetted against the skyline. The piece is “purposefully geometric with references to standing monolithic stones and historical architectural structures,” according to Rob Mulholland’s website, which describes the piece as an attempt to represent the tension between the human-created environment and the natural world. “The clear message is that nature will endure and control our destiny,” Mulholland writes, “regardless of what technological advances humankind makes.”

The Byte Size Scotland blog has some impressive black-and-white shots of the sculpture, and you can watch the new aerial video on the Above Scotland channel.